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A Little Shift in Perspective Required for Clearing a Dungeon – Part 03

As they reached the fourth floor, the type of monsters that spawned changed significantly, transitioning from clearly identifiable magical lifeforms to animal-based monsters.

All of them were the type that wouldn’t exist in a normal ecosystem, like six-legged wolves, bats with translucent insect-like wings, and monkeys that constantly walked on their hands. Moreover, they were all unusually large.

The gorilla that Jillarte was currently fighting had disproportionately long arms. It stood about four meters tall, covered in pink fur, with arms extending up to approximately five meters.

“Haaaaaah!”

Jillarte skillfully dodged the gorilla’s arms, then severed its right leg. The gorilla let out a shriek as it fell to the ground. It made a desperate attempt to kick with its remaining leg, but Jillarte effortlessly evaded the attack and swiftly decapitated the fallen gorilla.

“Phew…”

The gorilla dissipated into white smoke and disappeared before her eyes, leaving behind a red elemental magic stone about the size of a fingernail. Jillarte picked it up.

Hikaru approached her. “Well done.”

“Despite its size, its movements were quite predictable,” Jillarte replied. “Did you finish on your end?”

As a matter of fact, the long-armed gorilla approached from the front, while giant birds with degraded wings approached from behind. Although only about a meter in size, their numbers posed a problem. Hikaru dispatched them one by one with his atlatl, and when only two were left, they flew away.

“They just had numbers,” Hikaru said. “They dropped blue gems, by the way.”

“Oh…”

As Hikaru handed her the blue elemental magic stones, Jillarte hesitated for a moment before exchanging it for the red one and carefully placing it in a leather bag.

Jillarte’s objective was gathering water elemental magic stones, which were blue in color. So they decided that Jillarte would take the blue ones, while Hikaru’s group took the others.

“I feel bad taking so many elemental magic stones,” Jillarte said.

“They just happened to be blue. If anything, I feel bad for taking all the other colors.”

“I think it’s not nearly enough for what you did for me.”

“Come on. We’ve had this discussion countless times already.”

“Still…”

“Nope, we’re done with this topic. Okay? Never touching it again.”

“O-Okay.”

Jillarte was excessively concerned about being rescued by Hikaru and dragging them into her mess. At first, she insisted on taking down all the monsters by herself and giving all the elemental magic stones to them. Since she was too stubborn, Hikaru forcefully proposed that they acted as a party moving forward. There were four types of elemental magic stones, and there happened to be exactly four of them. Jillarte would take all the blue ones.

“Both stubborn,” Lavia had remarked incredulously.

As much as possible, Lavia refrained from using her magic inside the dungeon to avoid depleting the oxygen.

Hikaru sighed inwardly. How did it come to this?

He initially meant to keep his distance from Jillarte to prevent her from learning about his alter ego, but now they were acting as a party.

“Hikaru, let’s call it a day here,” Jillarte suggested.

It was already past 9 p.m., although it was difficult to gauge the time accurately in the dungeon due to the fixed lighting.

They stumbled upon a small room within the dungeon and decided to rest there.

“No one has ever figured out how monsters are generated inside this dungeon.”

“Yeah. This dungeon was created by a Dungeon Master. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be any notice at the entrance.”

Both naturally generated labyrinths and those created by a kind of monster called Dungeon Masters were referred to as dungeons. Dungeon Masters were born through the reincarnation of a soul, and they retained memories of their past lives.

Souls carrying memories from past lives, huh…

Hikaru thought he was just like them, but in his case, his soul was brought to this world through the spell for crossing worlds, so it was slightly different from conventional reincarnation.

No, wait a minute. In the case of Dungeon Masters, it’s not really “reincarnation” either. When their souls leave upon death, they get transferred for reasons unknown.

“Hikaru, you can have some of my food,” Jillarte said.

“Food? Right, we need to eat.” He pressed his stomach, and it growled. “Lavia, did you happen to bring any packed food?”

“Of course.” Lavia proudly opened her bag but immediately closed it. “Hikaru, something weird happened. Can you believe it?”

“Um, what is it?”

“I packed this bag with hardtack and jerky, but surprise! It got switched with a bag of candy.”

“So you brought the wrong bag.”

“And it’s honey-flavored!”

Lavia tried to come up with a feeble excuse, suggesting that a mischievous fairy might have been involved. Hikaru patted her head, and she apologized.

“Oh, um, I actually have some rations in my bag, so I think we’ll be fine,” Paula said.

“Thanks, Paula. How many days’ worth do you have?”

“About three days’ worth.”

“Miss Jillarte, how much food did you bring?”

“I have enough for seven days.”

“That’s good. Then we’ll eat the food that Paula brought, while you—”

Jillarte raised her hand. “Since we’re in the same party, we’ll share the food. Am I right?” She grinned.

She used Hikaru’s earlier suggestion of forming a party and turned it against him.

“Also, just call me Jillarte. No need to be so formal.” She winked playfully.

Hikaru gave a start. Pretty women always look good, no matter what they do.

---

Later that night. Glancing at the three wrapped in blankets, Jillarte stood up.

“Phew… Starting to feel a little sleepy.”

They had decided on a watch schedule, two hours for each of them. Six hours of sleep should be enough.

Jillarte started doing warm-up exercises. She stretched her legs and straightened her back. It was just right for dispelling drowsiness.

“What a nice party.”

She thought about the party of three that had saved her.

Hikaru used a powerful mid-range atlatl, and Lavia possessed long-range fire magic. If they were attacked up close, Paula’s Healing Magic would help them recover, or so they claimed. Jillarte had never actually seen her use Healing Magic. In today’s battles, Jillarte didn’t get injured, and Hikaru defeated all the enemies before they could get close.

A party consisting of only the three of them, with no dedicated front line, felt somewhat unbalanced, but considering that Hikaru could handle most of the enemies and that they could buy time with Lavia’s Flame Wall if needed, it was clear that they prioritized mobility.

They had thought things through. And Jillarte felt that they had quite a bit of confidence in themselves.

“That white flame…”

Lavia had used two types of magic. One was the Flame Wall, and the other was the white flame she used in the small room when they were cornered.

Hikaru said the latter was just an illusion, but Jillarte couldn’t help but see it as the white flame that had freed her father from the chains of Accursed Magic during the Ruler’s Rumble tournament. She couldn’t see it clearly earlier since she was being carried by Hikaru, and her body was paralyzed.

“Come to think of it, Hikaru must have been quite something to be able to run while carrying me.”

Other than her father, no one had ever held her like that. The closest she had come to being close to a man was holding hands with Silver Face.

“Although apparently we had to do that for his magic item to work.”

There were devices to conceal one’s presence, and she later learned through investigations that Silver Face had been using one. Silver Face himself had mentioned the existence of such a device during the battle with the Rank A adventurer Ryver during the tournament.

“He already has two lovely girls with him, and he still carried me.”

Hikaru carrying her was embarrassing, but she knew it was the only way to escape. Upon learning that Hikaru had formed a party with two girls, she felt somewhat strange.

“I feel… weird.” She stroked her chest with her right hand. “What am I thinking? I already have Silver Face… I-I mean, I owe him my life, that’s all. Don’t get the wrong idea, Jillarte! Argh, go away, useless thoughts! I’m gonna swing my sword.”

She unsheathed her sword and swung it with both hands.

Thinking about Silver Face always opened up a dam of emotions in her, leaving her utterly confounded. It was nothing new. However, today, with Hikaru being there, her emotions were even more erratic than usual.

There’s something about him that reminds me of Silver Face. Swinging her sword, she shot a glance at the sleeping Hikaru. I’m such an idiot. The way he carries himself is nothing like Silver Face. Hikaru’s movements clearly don’t indicate reliance on a magic item.

Fortunately for Hikaru, Unken’s training allowed him to avoid suspicion that he was Silver Face.

Besides, Silver Face would have directly confronted Gogo Zoro and took them down. He’s a skilled fighter in his thirties.

In Jillarte’s mind, Silver Face became more and more grand, and her assumption that someone with such skill must be in their thirties or older had turned into undeniable truth.